Never Quit: Turning Adversity Into Your Edge

Everyone faces adversity, but the difference is how we respond to it. Andrew Lavine’s story is a powerful reminder that setbacks do not have to define our future.

As a young tennis player, Andrew dreamed of competing at the Division I level. Along the way, he faced challenges that most people never experience, including moving to a new city, feeling isolated, and losing his mother at a young age. Despite the pain, uncertainty, and obstacles, he refused to quit on his dream.

Instead of allowing adversity to become a scar, Andrew chose to use it as an edge. He found purpose in honoring his mother, developed a strong reason why he played, and continued taking one step forward every day. Through hard work, perseverance, and a growth mindset, he earned the opportunity to play Division I tennis.

Andrew’s story reminds us that success is not about avoiding challenges. It is about continuing to move forward when challenges arise. You do not need perfect circumstances, and you do not need everyone to believe in you. You need a purpose, a willingness to keep learning, and the courage to never quit.

Adversity will test you, but it can also strengthen you. Never let a setback define who you are or where you are capable of going.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Healthy Mindset AI Podcast, where host Mike Hartman, a performance coach and former professional athlete, brings his passion to help athletes and workplace athletes achieve their dreams and goals while being mindful of everything else in life. Mike also uses this platform to share his targeted assessment applications, healthy mindset course, meditation and goal setting technique for the athlete and workplace athlete. We're glad you're here. Now let's dive head first into this episode of the Healthy Mindset AI podcast. Here's your host, Mike Hartman.

SPEAKER_00 0:49

As I mentioned, I'm going to be doing some episodes right through my iPhone in the car. I'm going to make sure I get these out as I'm doing some traveling here. We usually would take the summer off, but we're not going to do that this year. We're going to answer some questions and bring out some mindset tips for everybody. So the question is from a friend from Sally Salt, Lou Cannon. I've known Lou for quite a while. We have a mutual friend who uh was a hockey player in Detroit, and I've known our mutual friend, Doug Tucker, since he was probably nine or ten years old. So the question is, Mike, in a small world where so many people try to create an image online, how important is it to stay authentic and trust the process when building a business? Well, that's a great question. You have to have that mindset of trusting the process. You're exactly right. But be authentic, be real. Authenticity builds trust. We see it so often online that what the fake it till you make it method, people always tell people who they are and what they've done, and you can't find them anywhere online. Where are they? Uh, usually things are, you know, the internet's a very valuable resource. It has been before 1997, right around 1997, became very popular, so you could really see and read and do your research, do your due diligence, and say, Hey, is this person for real? So you can't fool anybody nowadays. So I believe on focusing just on building that trust, being extremely authentic, and also let your actions speak louder than your words. Your actions mean so much. I used to tell this story a lot. I remember Marc Messier would walk into a room, and it was pretty much like, hello, everybody, there you are, instead of hello, everybody, here I am. Look at me, everybody, look what I did. And people could read right through that. So uh be careful of that. That's just my opinion. And the things that you put online uh can't be erased sometimes. So be careful of what you do and just be real, be authentic, and let the chips fall where they may. So today I'm gonna go into this story. It's called Never Quit Turning Adversity into Your Edge. And I want to do this story on uh he's a friend, I don't even look at him as a client. I had a really close friend who's an attorney here in Charlotte. Uh his name is Jay Goldstein, and he mentioned to me that he has uh a nephew that is a young tennis player and up and coming. And I said, Oh, great. I go, Jay, how old is he? And at that time, I think I started working with him. He was around 14 years old. So he was he was very young and um got to know this player, and his dream was to play Division I. So the first thing I said is that's a great dream. Now, that like I said in one of our podcasts, that's dream it. His name is Andrew Levine. Andrew, that is fantastic, but let's focus not on the outcome, let's focus on what we could do right now. And it took a while to work with Andrew, and it took a while for him to open up to me, but eventually, when he did, uh, we became very close, and I watched how he just grew over the years. And it wasn't from me and my coaching, nothing to do with me, it was him. He chose to take his game and his life to another level. So, as a young player, I want to play division one, he kept telling me that all the time, and he grew up around the sport of tennis. In fact, his grandfather owned a tennis academy, and he he became so passionate about it. But all Andrew wanted to do was talk about the dream all the time. I'm gonna be redundant here. He says, Mike, division one was always my goal. This is what I wanted to do. And I said, Andrew, that's great. But it's he goes, Mike, it's not just the wish, this is what I want so bad. I said, Andrew, you have to commit to it, and he did. He did, he continued to do it, but all of us go through different things in life. And one thing Andrew had is he had some setbacks, he had adversity, hit him. Um, he moved to a new city, he had to go to a different school, meet different kids. He was unfamiliar with that, he felt left behind in the tennis world, he didn't think his future was going in the right direction. Uh, and at that time his mother became seriously ill. You know, his family try to protect him from the reality, he told me. And I said, Andrew, I that's the reality, but we could use it in our favor. And I never, you know, for me, I can't talk about somebody's emotions or how they feel when they go through what they do. I mean, Andrew was very young, it's devastating news, the passing of your mother. Everything changes. And, you know, as we were doing the coaching together, I said we could use that as if your mother's always there for you, or what can we do to help us get that little bit of an edge? You know, finding that purpose through pain. And that's one thing that you know, we learn through adversity, especially in life and athletics. Like, what is that thing that can motivate us? Not not everything should be motivating, but what can we do to get us through that pain and not hide it? Because the worst thing you want to do is hide it. So started working with Andrew over the years. I've been working with Andrew for for quite a while. Uh, you know, he learned all this different mindset coaching, and that's why I always said that it's more of the information and not just giving trans, you know, it's more of the transformation and not just giving information, but I gave Andrew a lot of great information and tools to work towards, but he had to actually do it himself, and and it was important that he he stayed the course and he kept plugging away and he he developed that that why and how I'm gonna do it. Not just, hey, I have a dream. And if I had a dollar for every person that told me, uh, yeah, boy, I wish I knew in college what I knew now. I wish when I was young at 14, what would that what would my inner voice say today? Well, of course, the easiest thing to do is to look back. I know the first thing that, you know, for me is making it to the NHL seem like impossible. And I finally realized uh maybe it's impossible for other people, um, but I realize that it has to be possible for me, and I believe that could be for everybody. You have to see those possibilities, you have to limit those doubts. Um, and it could it could help, it could hurt our confidence, it really can. It could set us back with our confidence, and it could you you feel behind when you have adversity. You're always fighting to get ahead, and I always say, keep fighting, keep going. So, as we're working with Andrew, as he's getting older, he's starting to win more tournaments. He would tell me about his great wins, and I said, Andrew, that's great. And I'm yeah, I was proud of that, but it went beyond the wins. It went beyond, and then when he lost, he really took it personal. And I said, Well, what did you do well today? What did you get out of what you did on the court? And I'm not a tennis player, I'm the I'm a struggling pickleball player. So, what did you do out there that was good today? Let's let's let's look at the stronger points of things that we did. So he was looking more at the positive things. I I realized I heard uh you know a lot of negativity at times, you know. Now I'm playing some of the top players in the in in Texas, and it's gonna be uh tough. And I said, Andrew, it doesn't matter, compete. Uh, the one thing you could do is outwork everybody. That's the one control you have. So you have to work on what you can control. It doesn't matter who you're playing against, you can only control what you can control. There's certain things we can't control, and but the things that you can control, you could definitely take to the next level. Uh so as he kept growing and he kept getting a little bit uh older, I'm gonna fast forward a little bit. He called me one day and he said he uh he's gonna play Division I college tennis. I was so proud of him, like that's everything he wanted. And I said, Andrew, I'm beyond proud of you. I said, this was something that you worked for, but one thing I learned as an athlete, um, they used to tell me this. This was like a Lindy Ruff told me, he's now the coach of the Sabres. He was coach in the NHL for a long time and was with the Sabres, and now he then he you know wasn't with the Sabres for for a lot of years, and he's back. And one day I had a I had a pretty good game, and and he said to me to to keep me grounded, like great leadership. He said, I want to teach you something. I said, What's that? He says, How many miles is it from Buffalo to Rochester? I said, 60 miles. He says, Yeah, but you know what? It's 120 to come back, so it's 60 miles to Buffalo, so and it's 120 to come back, so never get too high, celebrate your wins, never get too low. And I remember I scored, it was opening night, I scored two goals, and uh he says, Well, you're off to 160 goals a year joking around because that's one thing Lindy loved to do is joke around. But he really taught, I always thought about that like 60 miles down, 120 back. He says, once you start getting too comfortable, and if you're getting comfortable in your ways, it's gonna be harder to get back. So if they send you to Rochester, it's it's a long way back because now you're down there, you're not forgotten, but you're put on the back burner a little bit. And I told the same thing to Andrew. I said, Andrew, that's fantastic. You are on your way up, but remember every day you have to do something different that nobody else is doing. So when I hear a lot of these athletes today, and I could probably call out the frustrated athlete, I think I got that domain name years ago because all I hear is boy, if I didn't get hurt or I should have done this, if I only had this, if I used my mental toughness when I was young. And you don't want to you don't want to do that. And for those, I hope I'm not picking on anybody, I'm just being direct, but those are the you have to use certain tools and you have to work with whatever it is that you have. So you want to keep showing up, you want to keep improving, you want to keep moving forward. You never let the setbacks uh define who you are, because you're gonna everybody fails. Uh, but you're not doesn't make you a failure. I remember we did the Learn to Play program as a young hockey player in in Oak Park, Michigan, which is so sad they tore down the rink that we grew up in. I don't want to get off track, but I remember our great coaches we had there, Marshall Schenkop and Steve Woodburgh, we called them Woody and a great little community. And you fall, you get right back up, and and that's what what they taught us. My fifth-grade teacher, uh Mr. McPhillips, said, okay, never give up, just keep going. And if uh you're struggling here, then you just have to work hard in that area, work harder, do something different that nobody else is doing. So these are things that that I've learned at a real young age. And just to fast forward, Andrew, now he's uh on his way, made the decision to transfer to the University of New Mexico, and I'm gonna give him the same message as I always said, Andrew, what do we have to do? We have to be we have to be balanced, we have to be level-headed, you have to approach it like okay, don't worry about the outcome. Let's okay, if you're you're gonna be on a new team, new players, new situation, and what you have to do is adapt. And you want to be like, and and I said it earlier, thanks, Lou Cannon. You want to be authentic. So when you go to the team, don't hide behind a mask, don't pretend to be somebody you're not, be yourself, and just be who you are, and everything you do, you do it at a hundred percent. And uh, one of my favorite lines is a lot of cliches today. And uh, I think my father told me this. He said, sometimes you feel that you only have 50%. You have a cold, you don't feel well, uh, something is wrong with you. Andrew, your tennis racket might not be someone did the stringing of it. I hope I'm even saying that right, and maybe they did it too tight, and you're gonna go out and play, and it's a different feel or different hockey stick, doesn't matter what it is, but you still have to give a hundred percent of the 50% you have. So if you don't feel good, something is off, you still have to give a hundred percent of that. I remember my father always told that to me. He says, Okay, I said, Dad, I don't feel great today. Because he always asks, hey, how do you think you played today? Well, I did okay, I just didn't feel great. My skate uh didn't feel completely nice. I didn't have um my skate sharpened the way I wanted it to. Uh maybe they, you know, I like to get my skates at five eights, and maybe it was done at a half, and I can make all the excuses in the world, except I realize it doesn't matter. You still have to give everything you have. And Lou, I'm gonna bring it back to you again. Um, you know, thanks again so much. My my like I said, uh I told you this and I I mentioned this that my son wanted uh, you know, for for his uh his birthday. He said, Stad, you know what I want this year? I want some celly salt that you were talking about because I love to cook. I said, I can make that happen, no problem. So that is the story today. And uh I'm gonna say it again, Andrew. I hope you listen to this. I'm gonna send this to you. But I want I'm really proud of uh of who you are, and I'm not proud of what you I am proud, that's great. You lived your dream to play division one, but I always love the person who you are. That's who it is. I work with a lot of young athletes, we work with different groups, uh, business professionals. Um, and I'm proud of the person you are, the character you know you are. That's that's who I'm proud of. Hey, everything else is a bonus. Yes, you played division one, you live your dream. We have players that played at every level in the uh NHL, major league baseball. It doesn't matter, but I want to know the kind of person you are, and uh that's really what it's about. So uh, Lou again uh from Sally Salt here, just uh keep doing what you're doing. I know that people um all over are using your product. I took it to one of the speaking engagements that I did in New York last year, and and the pro guys loved it. As you saw, we took pictures from it. So a lot of the NHL players, I said, here, try this salt. And I was like, I was I should be your salesperson, Lou. But, anyways, um, fantastic uh question and looking forward to next time. Have a great day.

SPEAKER_01 16:15

We're so glad you joined us for this episode of the Healthy Mindset AI Podcast with your host, Mike Hartman. If you're enjoying the show, please feel free to rate, subscribe, and leave a review wherever you listen to your podcasts. That helps others find the show, and we greatly appreciate it. To dive deeper and learn more about the Healthy Mindset program, or to get in touch with Mike, please visit our website, healthymindset.ai. Thanks again for listening, and we hope you'll join us again on the next episode of the Healthy Mindset AI Podcast. Until then, be well.